Advanced Television

EC: RAI, Mediaset should be banned from TV frequency auction

November 7, 2012

From Branislav Pekic in Rome

The European Commission has proposed that Italian public broadcaster Rai and its commercial rival Mediaset should be excluded from the auction to assign surplus TV frequencies.

According to Italian newspapers, this is the opinion of the EC on the regulations that Italy’s Communications Authority (AgCom) is proposing for the auction that will issue digital mutiplexes in 2013.

Initially, the TV frequencies were supposed to have been awarded free of charge on a so-called “beauty contest” to all operators, including RAI, Mediaset, Telecom Italia Media, and Sky Italia.

The draft regulations for the TV frequency auction should be put up for public consultation at the end of this month. According to the reports, they will include a limit of the number of multiplexes that future participants on the auction can own: those who already own five will not be able to take part.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTT/DSO, Policy, Regulation